chemfreegarden
1810 Macquarie Island. First Europeans arrived.
Hunters slaughtered its seals for fur and blubber.
Then came the rats.
The rats ate the European’s food so they brought in the cats. Rabbits followed to compliment the diet. Rabbits flourished and by mid 20th century there were 150,000 of them. Then came the conservationists. They brought in a flea, (Spilopsllus cuniculi) that lives in the fur of the rabbit and carries the myxomatosis virus. Introduced in 1968 it cut the rabbit population by 90%. Vegetation started to recover. But there will still the cats. Without the rabbits to eat, the cats turned their claws on the remaining ground nesting birds. So, starting in 1985, the Australian government started shooting the cats. Some true ecologists thought this was a dumb move, and they were right. 15 years later the island was cat free, but with-out the cats the rats ran riot…
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The rats ate the European’s food so they brought in the cats. Rabbits followed to compliment the diet. Rabbits flourished and by mid 20th century there were 150,000 of them. Then came the conservationists. They brought in a flea, (Spilopsllus cuniculi) that lives in the fur of the rabbit and carries the myxomatosis virus. Introduced in 1968 it cut the rabbit population by 90%. Vegetation started to recover. But there will still the cats. Without the rabbits to eat, the cats turned their claws on the remaining ground nesting birds. So, starting in 1985, the Australian government started shooting the cats. Some true ecologists thought this was a dumb move, and they were right. 15 years later the island was cat free, but with-out the cats the rats ran riot…